The 13-year-old victim of the Eaton Centre shooting was alert and talking Monday after surgery to his skull.

PORT HOPE — The 13-year-old victim of the Eaton Centre shooting was alert and talking Monday after surgery to his skull.

“After complicated neurosurgery, we are happy to say that he is doing well, all things considered; he is alert and talking,” the boy’s family said in a prepared statement. “It will be a long healing process, but we are optimistic that he will recover.”

The family said that he was listed in fair condition Monday after being hit in the head with a stray bullet in a shooting rampage that killed one man and injured seven bystanders.

“We want to extend our deepest appreciation and gratitude for the public’s concern and well wishes,” the family said.

The boy was shot in the mall’s food court Saturday on what was supposed to be a relaxing day in the big city with his mother and older sister.

At Sick Kids, doctors operated to reduce swelling as his parents and other close family members, maintained a bedside vigil.

In his hometown, locals and family struggled to make sense of what happened.

“It's one of those things where he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and was hurt, through no fault of his own,” Tyler Douglas of Port Hope said Monday.Douglas said the family has deep roots in the area.

A spokesperson for the boy’s school described him as “a kind and caring young man.

“We have spoken about the incident with students in class and in chapel and will continue to have such conversations in the days to come,” Ashley DiNova said.

Locals were stunned to see news footage of the boy being rushed out of the Eaton Centre and onto an ambulance.

Douglas said he thinks locals may have second thoughts about going to Toronto for family jaunts.